


Dancing with the Devil

by seraphicbane



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assassination Attempt(s), Assassins & Hitmen, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Violence, Politics, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Soulmates Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Threats of Violence, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2019-11-15 13:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18074690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphicbane/pseuds/seraphicbane
Summary: In a world where soulmates are physically incapable of harming one another, Magnus Bane is a trained assassin who gets sent on a mission to kill Alec Lightwood, the eldest son of the President of Idris and though he doesn't know it yet, his soulmate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovely people of the world! This is my very first attempt at committing to a multi-chaptered fic since like 2015 so I have to ask some patience of you when it comes to updates and such. I may suck at being consistent and I want you to know that right off the bat. Very good sales pitch, huh?

Walking into Asmodeus’ office felt like walking into a different establishment altogether. The smell of burning wood mixed with whiskey was an off-putting contrast to the way the rest of the institute’s rooms reeked of blood and sweat. It was like the man was doing everything he could to exclude himself and his working space from the empire that he had singlehandedly built. As if being the head of an institution whose one and only purpose was to train people to kill in all the most creative ways wasn't his greatest accomplishment in life and as if those people weren’t assigned the most abhorrent tasks in this very room.

"Thank you for answering my call so fast, my boy," his father turned around in his chair to face him, a glass of whiskey in hand.

Magnus stood in front of his desk and placed his hands behind his back, acknowledging Asmodeus with a curt nod. "Of course."

A smile tugged at the corner of Asmodeus' mouth as he took in the sight of his son standing in front of him in a warrior-like stance, not a trace of emotion visible on his face.

"I won't be keeping you here for long as the mission I'm about to send you on is rather acute and requires some extra time and patience on your end.”

It was then that Magnus knew that this particular mission required something of him that he wasn't necessarily accustomed to doing but he was in no position to refuse.

"I would absolutely take care of this myself, but the truth is that you are far more skilled than I am. You will get the job done faster, cleaner and better.”

Magnus raised an elegant eyebrow at his words though he knew for a fact that he was right. His father had never given him an opportunity to be anything but the best. "So what is it that you need me to do?"

"You recall the conversations we have had about the Lightwood family, yes?" Asmodeus inquired, anger seeping into his voice at the mere mention of the family.

Magnus stilled. "I do," He spoke through gritted teeth.

"See, as much as I want to destroy them and the President especially, I can not start with Robert out of sheer self-preservation. I must ensure that this institute stays safe. There's no other place in the world that produces people so skilled in the deadly arts. Going after the president wouldn't be good for the business."

Magnus simply nodded. "You're right."

"And since getting to the root of the problem right away is not possible, I must dig some dirt out of the way first," Asmodeus continued, opening the notebook sitting on the desk in front of him. He grabbed a picture from within its pages and slid it across the table for Magnus to see. "Alec Lightwood, Robert's eldest son. Targeting him should send the President a message."

Magnus stared at the man in the blurry Polaroid. Even from the low-quality picture, he could tell that he was exceptionally beautiful, which was something the Lightwoods all had in common. However, this man was supposed to be the son of the most well-known family in the country and he had no recollection of ever seeing his face before.

“He is a Lightwood?” He asked dubiously, picking up the picture to examine it more closely. “How come I have never seen him before?”

"Trust me, he is. The boy has simply never been seen with the rest of the First Family. Somehow he has avoided every public event they have attended," Asmodeus explained. "If we get to him, our dear President will surely know that whoever targeted his absolutely harmless son has much more in store for the man who is committing abhorrent crimes at the expense of innocent people he’s supposed to serve. If his son gets hurt, he will know that he could be next and he will know exactly why.”

Though usually on board with his father’s plans, Magnus was a little doubtful of his logic regarding this particular case. Still, he didn’t voice his concern. It wasn’t his place to do so. He was simply recruited to do the dirty work.

“Because the media isn’t particularly interested in the eldest Lightwood child, he has an extraordinary privilege to leave the premise of the family house without any security accompanying him,” Asmodeus grabbed a pen and wrote down what looked like an address on a piece of paper, handing it to Magnus. “You will most likely find him at the Library of Alicante, where you will approach him in as friendly a manner as possible. After you earn his trust and charm the socks off him, you must lead him to a more quiet location to complete the mission. Nothing you haven't done before."

The theoretical details of the mission made it sound so incredibly simple, but Magnus knew that it would be anything but. Going after people associated with public figures was never simple. What made this assignment even less simple was the fact that Alec Lightwood wasn't guilty of a single crime, or at least they had every reason to believe he wasn't. The only thing he had done wrong was being associated with someone who made a career out of making the lives of ordinary people hell on earth and pretending like he was doing them a service in doing so. While killing had become more or less a chore to Magnus as a result of years of consistent training, having to kill someone whose only crime was having an affiliation with a criminal felt cruel even by his standards.

“So are you ready to take on the mission, son?” Asmodeus asked, oblivious to Magnus' unexpected moral conundrum.

For the first time in his career he was not sure if he was ready.

Asmodeus looked up at Magnus and noted the hesitation in his expression immediately, his patience running out very fast at the unwelcomed expression of humanity.

"Don't tell me that you think that this boy is innocent," He seethed. "You can not seriously believe that remaining quiet when his father is destroying our country is acceptable? Really think about it. He could be influencing his father's decisions and making a tremendous change but chooses not to. Remember, my boy, an omission can be equally as morally corrupt as an action."

Magnus blinked and whatever compassion he'd felt for the man was gone with the wind. He was almost angry that he had begun to worry for him, begun to question if he was right to do what he had to. It wasn't his job to look out for others just as it wasn't anybody else's job to look out for him. It was his job to carry out orders no matter what they entailed. There was no room for contemplation of ethics.

Slipping the Polaroid into the inside pocket of his jacket, he looked back up at his father. "I will get to it immediately."

"Good. Once you have arrived at the secondary location with our target, you must proceed by the protocol and complete the job as quickly as you can. There can be no witnesses. If there are, you must take care of them too. Do I make myself clear?"

Magnus nodded sharply. The instructions were just about as mundane to him as a shopping list by now but they had to be reviewed ahead of every mission.

“Off you go, then," Asmodeus said, a faint smile returning to his face. "Make me proud, son.”

****

His father had said that patience would be a crucial factor in whether or not this mission would succeed but Magnus didn’t exactly understand why until he arrived at the Library of Alicante. He had expected a relatively small and quaint building with a sweet old woman working at the front desk who would be stupidly easy to trick into thinking that he was simply a common gentleman dressed in all black looking to expand his tastes in literature. In actuality, the library was all marble floors and sharp-looking librarians, the building consisting of four separate floors, all of them filled with hundreds upon hundreds of shelves of books. Finding Alec Lightwood was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Having no idea what kind of literature the man he was looking for preferred, Magnus’ best and only bet was to walk around and simply hope against hope to find what he was here for, which admittedly wasn’t his preferred method of working. He didn't exactly love to rely on luck.

Magnus did realize that he could have asked one of the employees for help, but he doubted that they could offer him information on which genre of novels the firstborn son of the President liked to read. He had no choice but to find out for himself.

After walking around for what felt like hours, Magnus stopped at a shelf dedicated entirely to Shakespearean works on the second floor just to see if there were any there that he had yet to read. Upon realizing that he'd already read every book stacked into that specific shelf, he turned around to continue on with his search with a sigh bordering on resigned. In doing so he not only walked directly into someone but also caused them to drop the entire stack of books that they had been carrying in their arms onto the floor.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” The stranger blurted out immediately, crouching down to pick up the books that they had dropped at the same time as Magnus knelt down in order to help him gather them up.

“I wasn’t watching where I was going, this was completely my fault,” the stranger continued to apologize, shaking his head in disbelief at his own inattention.

Magnus looked up at the stranger to assure them that no apologies were necessary when his eyes met theirs and he realized that the clumsy stranger was no stranger at all.

The out-of-focus picture he had seen of the man didn’t do justice to how truly beautiful he actually was. Standing there with his dark curls falling over his shining hazel eyes, his lips curved into a gentle, apologetic smile, Alec Lightwood was easily the most effortlessly stunning man Magnus had seen in his life.

“You aren’t hurt, are you?” The man asked, genuine concern written all over his face.

Magnus only barely resisted rolling his eyes. The irony of the man being so troubled by the possibility of hurting someone who had been assigned to kill him was not lost on him.

He could feel the weight of the blade tucked into his belt pressing persistently into his thigh, a reminder of exactly what he was here to do that was impossible to ignore.

Refocusing his attention, Magnus took a step closer to the man and reached out to touch his arm in an assuring gesture. “Not at all", He smiled. "On the contrary, it’s a pleasure to run into an intellectual such as yourself,” Magnus winked as he handed Alec the Picture of Dorian Gray, one of the many books he had been holding in his hands before their literal collision.

"Oh," Alec breathed out as he took the book from him, chuckling softly.

Not for the first time, Magnus understood why this mission was different and he felt like he couldn't get the job done fast enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm genuinely so sorry that this took me so much longer to get up than planned. Scary real life things and responsibilities suddenly took up way too much of my time and writing was a struggle, but here we are at last.
> 
> Thank you for your patience and encouragement, it really does mean so much to me!
> 
> Also, a quick reminder here that if I ever want to inform yall about the progression of writing or complain about not being able to, those updates will appear under the #dwtdfic tag on twitter! You're also very welcome to use that tag about all things regarding this fic if you so wish. <3

"So, do you know a lot of classic literature?" Alec asked curiously as he placed the rest of the books that he had been holding into their assigned places on the shelves.

When it came to earning the trust of his targets Magnus often wanted to avoid honesty at all costs, but Alec presented himself as an exception to the rule. He had a feeling that for Alec to trust him he had to somehow appear relatable to him, which left him with no choice but to be at least a little truthful.

"I grew up in a family where education was considered of the utmost importance, so I wasn't allowed all that much free time because that would’ve distracted me from what was truly important,” He began, leaning his shoulder on the side of a bookshelf. “The only thing my father deemed an appropriate use of my time aside from studying was reading. I ended up doing quite a lot of that, so I read through many classics very fast."

Not entirely a lie. From a young age, his father had made it clear to him that he would have to train harder than any of the other assassins-to-be if he wanted to be the best of them all. That wasn’t necessarily what Magnus ever wanted, but Asmodeus never introduced any other outcome as a viable option, so for many years his days primarily consisted of throwing knives at targets. That was until Magnus convinced his father that he would have to study law in order to be able to know every possible way around it. In reality, he didn’t need to learn about criminology. By the time he was ten he already knew all there was to know about the justice system and all of its principles and flaws. He just wanted to get an excuse to hide in the library for hours reading whatever he felt like reading on any given day and somehow his father allowed it to happen.

Alec turned to face him and smiled, crossing his arms over his chest. “Would you believe me if I told you I grew up in a very similar setting?”

“Really?” Magnus questioned, but he couldn’t say that he was surprised.

“My parents were always really strict, so I was never allowed to do half the things that my classmates were doing, but I was always encouraged to read as much as possible. I think the encouragement was partly because they wanted me to help my little sister learn to read before she started school,” He said, a nostalgic smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I started out with the regular fairytales, of course, but eventually I decided that she had heard enough stories about princesses kissing frogs and I read a chapter of The Great Gatsby to her every night before bed.”

“I imagine you got in trouble for that,” Magnus commented, his voice laced with genuine amusement.

Alec chuckled. “Yeah, I did, unfairly. My sister fell asleep on me a few paragraphs in without fail every night, so she had no way of getting negatively influenced by the book.”

Magnus couldn’t help but find the image terribly endearing.

“Later on, she named a pet rabbit of hers Daisy Fay, but I really don’t think that reading the book to her had an impact on the decision. If it did, our parents don’t need to know that.”

“I have a feeling your sister and I would get along, though her taste in pet names is a little more advanced than mine,” Magnus said, causing Alec to raise an eyebrow in question. “When I was around eleven years old, I looked after a stray cat. Since I had just recently read The Great Gatsby, I decided it was only right to name it Great Catsby.”

Completely true. Coincidentally only a few days after he had finished reading The Great Gatsby for the first time, he found a gray tabby kitten wandering around near the institute. Over the course of a week, he saw it there enough times that he began to worry that it had no home so he decided to take care of it best as he could by sneaking it food outside. Some days he would manage to sneak the kitten inside the institute and bring it to the library, where he would sit reading and petting the cat for hours – all completely unbeknownst to his father.

Alec bit into his lip in an attempt to try and contain his laughter, but he was terrible at hiding his amusement. ”Don’t tell my sister that I said this, but you definitely win the best pet name inspired by The Great Gatsby,” He said, his eyes shining.

Magnus was just about to open his mouth to say that he strongly disagreed with his statement when he was interrupted by a librarian walking past them, informing people that the library would be closing in ten minutes.

He swiftly turned his head to see the clock high up on the wall. It was almost nine in the evening, meaning that the duration of the mission was already nearing several hours and he had barely gotten started.

With no more time left to waste, he reached out to grab Alec’s arm with a gentle smile. “I would really love to hear more stories about you being a questionable influence on your siblings. Perhaps over drinks?”

Alec was visibly taken aback by the invitation and Magnus internally cursed his impulsive decision immediately. He exhaled and went on to choose his words very carefully, knowing that slipping up now would mean the end of the mission since killing the President’s son in the biggest public library in the country wasn’t exactly in the cards. “Don’t tell me this is the first time someone has asked you out here.”

“Actually, it is,” Alec admitted bashfully.

“Well, please don’t feel like you have to say yes, it is more than okay for you to decline,” Magnus said reassuringly, resorting back to his comfortable habit of dishonesty.

At that, Alec’s eyes widened. “Oh, no,” He exclaimed. “I would be happy to come.”

Magnus breathed out a silent sigh of relief and offered him an easy smile. “Let’s go then, shall we?”

Knowing that Alec had no idea what those words meant for him manifested as a sudden, unwelcome weight on his chest, but he could deal with it as long as it didn't stop him from being able to carry the mission to its intended end.

****

Considering the momentary fear that he wasn’t going to be able to successfully complete the mission that had already crept into his mind once, Magnus was relieved to find that it had begun to rain, making the mission that much easier by default. With Alicante most often being a city that was warm and sunny, the residents rarely went outside when the weather was unfortunate, which lowered the likeliness of there being innocent witnesses who would have to suffer the consequences of simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time considerably. Though Magnus had only been forced to kill witnesses a handful of times in the beginning years of his career, the guilt of those kills had never quite stopped weighing on his conscience.

It was right then that he was reminded that there was a possibility that Alec, too, was simply a witness to the abhorrent crimes associated with his family name and yet he had to suffer the consequences of them like he had orchestrated them himself – as a witness would.

Magnus tried his best to quiet the doubtful part of his brain that told him to reconsider what he was doing, trying to convince him that there were better ways to go about this situation. At the end of the day, that wasn’t in his hands.

“So, where exactly are we going? I don’t really frequent this part of the city,” Alec spoke up for the first time since leaving the library, shaking Magnus out of his thoughts.

“To a place right around here,” He replied quickly, gesturing towards the corner of the next street and the alleyway he knew came after.

With every step he took from that point forward he somehow felt increasingly at ease, like his mind and body were making a collaborative effort to help him reach the most ideal mindset for what was to come. With every step, he was less concerned about the facts and more trusting of his instincts.

Once they reached that narrow alleyway Magnus was all too familiar with, he knew he only had up to a few minutes to complete the mission and leave before someone was bound to walk by despite the weather. Murdering someone wasn’t exactly the most discreet activity. At a certain point, people were going to notice.

“Hey,” Magnus reached out to grab Alec’s wrist in order to stop him from continuing to walk once they reached the midway point of the alleyway, causing Alec to flinch like his body somehow knew what was going to happen.

Without saying another word, he hastily lifted up the sleeve of his jacket, revealing a golden band clasped around his wrist with a small pentagram engraved into it. Next to the pentagram was his surname in all capital letters. These were the two things he was required to leave on every crime scene in one way or another – a signature of sorts. For him, the easiest way to accomplish this was by carving the markings on the victim’s skin as his weapon of choice was always a blade of some kind.

By making it a requirement for people working for him to leave these markings on crime scenes, Asmodeus made sure that whoever was assigned to investigate the kills orchestrated by him could tell exactly who was responsible for them. Making his trainees wear the bracelets with the markings on them wasn’t a necessity by any means, but for anybody wearing them, they were an excellent instrument of intimidation since anybody involved in government affairs would recognize an assassin by their kill signature immediately. Alec Lightwood was not an exception.

"You're Magnus Bane," He said slowly, cold realization permeating his voice.

To say that Magnus was well-known would have been an understatement. He was so exceptionally good at what he did that the authorities had issued numerous official statements in the past on how they were simply unable to locate him no matter how hard they tried. Leaving his signature on the crime scene may have been a form of identification, but it had also developed into an act of simply rubbing his invincibility in their face.

Magnus looked up at the man, not letting go of his wrist. Like with the snap of a finger his benevolent façade dropped and there was nothing but malicious determination left in his eyes.

“You really should choose the people you trust better,” He said unnervingly calmly for someone who was talking about shepherding someone into their death. “You would think that the eldest son of the First Family would know not to talk to strangers.”

Alec took a hesitant step back, his back meeting the brick wall behind him. He didn’t look scared as much as he looked betrayed, which Magnus didn’t take note of.

“This was definitely a first for me, so I don’t think that you can blame me."

Magnus tilted his head to the side and clicked his tongue in feigned pity. “Darling, it is not your fault that the people of Alicante can’t appreciate a beautiful man when they see one.”

Alec rolled his eyes and yanked his arm free of Magnus’ hold. “How are you planning on getting rid of me?”

“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“What have I ever done to you?” Alec asked, his voice suddenly perfectly leveled.

Those particular words shot right under Magnus’ skin, somewhere deep under the surface where the wounds of trauma were still raw, still in the process of closing and healing. Somewhere that had no connection to logic or reason. Someone who was so closely connected to the man that was responsible for so much pain being so ignorant to it made him see red.

“The last thing I owe you is an explanation,” Magnus spoke as he went to reach for the dagger tucked into his belt, anger seeping out of every last word. The cool metal of the dagger didn’t even have time to absorb the warmth of Magnus’ hands before he had thrown it across the air, aimed directly at Alec's chest.

Everything that happened after that felt slowed down, like an alternate version of reality momentarily crossing into the one they knew. 

Never in his career had he thrown a weapon and missed its intended target, but the sound of the dagger colliding with the brick wall behind Alec’s back and clattering as it fell to the ground told a different story.

He had thrown the blade exactly where he’d meant to, exactly where it would do the most damage fastest, and yet he had failed.

It took him a moment too long to understand exactly why. Once the revelation came to him, it was almost as if someone had punched him in the gut. 

For a moment he felt entirely unattached to reality, everything around him unmoving. All he could hear was a persistent humming in his ears, overwhelming every sense. Only when he looked back up at Alec and met his hazel eyes filled with panic did he find his way back to the present moment and the unbelievable reality of it. The reality in which he had just found his soulmate. 

Their souls were intertwined in a way that prevented him from causing any physical harm to Alec; the man he was dead set on killing mere minutes ago. If there had been time to, he probably would have laughed at the horrible irony of it. Alas, there was no time.

Physically shaking his head in an attempt to fully come back to himself, Magnus took a step closer to Alec.

”We have to go. You have to trust me,” He said lowly, extending his hand for Alec to take. He had never seen a person look so dumbfounded.

“You tried to kill me less than a minute ago and now you’re telling me that I have to trust you?” He asked in such disbelief that Magnus may as well have asked him to fetch the moon from the sky for him.

“But I didn’t succeed, now did I? I guarantee that you wouldn't still be talking if I was capable of hurting you, but I'm not. The people I work among, however, will gladly finish what I couldn't if you don't come with me,” Magnus spoke through gritted teeth, visibly shaking from an impatient mix of anger and despair. 

“What stops us from forgetting that this ever happened? Just let me go and I promise I will never say a word to anyone.”

“That is very noble of you. It's too bad nobility will not keep you alive.”

Alec looked around him as if he was going to find a plan of action within the darkness of the alley, shaking his head. “This is insane,” He whispered.

“But I will," Magnus pressed on. "You are my soulmate,” He spat out the words like they were poison on his tongue, unfamiliar and unwelcome. “According to any person who has ever found theirs, that means that I was put on this earth to protect you, no matter the circumstances. You would have to be out of your mind to refuse that protection when you need it more than you ever have.”

“How can I know that you're not lying? I have no reason to trust you,” Alec demanded, desperately determined to find a way out of the situation that didn't entail trusting Magnus Bane of all people.

Magnus could feel the blood beginning to boil inside of his veins, panic infusing his words. “I’m not going to beg for you, your life really doesn’t mean all that much to me,” He said with finality. “But if you don’t come with me, I promise you won’t live to see another day. You have no idea the people you will be up against.”

Alec stared into his eyes for what felt like an eternity squeezed into the span of ten seconds, searching for a reason to believe that he was being honest. What he found was a glimpse of painfully human desperation that shockingly mirrored what he was feeling all too well. This assured him that there had to be more to the story than Magnus was letting on, that this failure wouldn’t result in desirable consequences for him either.

Although every muscle in his body repelled the mere idea of putting his life into the man’s hands who had just failed to take it from him, with every passing second, he became more aware that he really didn’t have much to lose. The possibility of him getting killed remained no matter what he did, but with Magnus, the chances of him becoming a target again were at least lower. 

With that, he placed his pride aside if only for the moment, took a steadying breath and placed his hand in Magnus’. “Then what the hell are you waiting for?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to point out that Great Catsby is snatched straight from the books and I have absolutely no ownership of that brilliant name!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does it keep taking me so painfully long to get chapters up, you lovely humans may ask. The simple answer is that I just really like to stare at the words I write until I hate them with every bone in my body and that definitely prolongs the process quite a bit. I'm trying hard to get better at this, but obsessions and compulsions and perfectionism mixed with writing really isn't a good mix at all.
> 
> Thank you for your feedback and patience, I hope this is at least a little bit worth the wait <3

Magnus had no idea for how long they had been walking, but he hadn’t stopped once. Not to heave in a full breath. Not to think about what exactly he was doing. Not to check if Alec was okay, not that he was especially interested in his wellbeing. All he cared about was that he was willing to cooperate. He couldn’t afford to focus on anything but moving forward and getting as far away from the city as possible.

It was only when a phone began to ring somewhere far too close to him that he abruptly stopped and turned to face Alec.

”For the love of god, please tell me that is not yours.”

Alec reached his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the ringing phone, silencing it with a haste tap. He was about to shove it right back in when he took a better look at the screen and his mother’s face stared back at him. 

”It’s my mother,” He said, his voice suddenly distant. It was evident that the realization that there was no way for him to know if he would ever get to see his family again came to him with the phone call and if it was possible, he was now even more conflicted about the situation than before. Earlier when leaving the alleyway behind he had only been able to think about the prospect of escaping a threat, but it finally came to him what he would be losing in the process of escaping. He was running from the thing that meant most to him in the world and that wasn’t an easy thing to come to terms with.

Acutely aware of the fact that they were standing right in the middle of a street in an exceptionally idyllic part of town, Magnus placed his hands on Alec’s chest, forcing him to look up from the phone screen. As long as they didn’t hear their conversation, to a stranger, they would have just looked like any other couple sharing a moment in the pouring rain instead of an assassin convincing the son of the president to run away with him. 

”You don’t want to hear this, but you can’t have your phone with you,” Magnus said quietly, not willing to risk a single soul hearing a word of what he was saying. He had already breathed a sigh of relief a time too many, he couldn't afford to lull himself into a false sense of security before he was out of Alicante, undetected. 

”You ask awfully much of me considering how blindly I’m trusting you with my life,” Alec lifted his gaze up, his eyes full of anger. ”Where the hell are you even planning on going?”

”I can’t tell you,” Magnus replied tersely. ”Not when you have technology on you that may be recording us as we speak and can be tracked in a matter of moments. The point in going where we are going is to not be found.”

Alec breathed out a heavy sigh, contemplating his options, the phone still silently ringing in his hand. 

“Who does it hurt to answer this one call if I leave the phone behind after I’m done?” Alec demanded.

Magnus inhaled sharply, his eyes flitting down to the ground. In the past, his targets had proposed many a request that he had no problem shooting down, but of course he had to find himself unable to perform by protocol when it came to Alec. 

A part of him wondered if it was a part of the soulmate system, if the inability to hurt one’s soulmate extended to emotional damage as well. He knew exactly what it felt like to have someone taken from you without getting to say goodbye and nothing he had ever done had kept him up at night like that had. Therefore if he could give someone a chance to get their last words in, he had no choice but to do it. How much he despised the person in question was secondary.

“You have sixty seconds.” 

Alec’s eyes widened in genuine disbelief that Magnus agreed with him. 

“But after you’re done, you won’t just leave the phone behind, you will destroy it.”

“Fine”, he agreed dismissively and lifted the phone up to his ear to answer the call. “Mom, hi.”

If Magnus turned his back to Alec then, not to give him privacy but to not allow him to see the genuine pity he feared was visible on his face, he didn’t ever need to know that.

Only when he was certain a minute had passed did he turn back around to face him again. 

As he did, Alec looked up at him, his expression freezing cold. “I’ll be home in no time, I promise,” he told his mother reassuringly, like an indirect demand for Magnus to sort out this mess that Alec had never asked to be a part of as fast as humanly possible.

Magnus didn’t flinch, simply tapped at his wrist where his watch would’ve been to gesture that they didn’t have time to keep standing around, prompting Alec to end the call.

“I have to go,” Alec said into the phone and by the looks of the relieved expression on his face his mother didn’t question the statement. “I love you. Bye.”

Once he had hung up, he threw the phone on the ground and jammed the heel of his shoe into the screen, causing Magnus to chuckle.

“What?” He glared at him.

Magnus crouched down to pick up the bent out of shape device and tucked it into his belt next to his dagger. ”That may outwardly break it, but we need for it to be unrecoverable,” He explained in a similar tone that he would use to explain why grass was green to a three-year-old child. ”Throwing it into Lake Lyn should do it.”

“I don’t have much previous experience in almost getting killed by a renowned assassin, kidnapped by my soulmate or destroying a phone so you’ll just have to forgive me if I’m a little unprepared,” Alec said, inwardly seething.

Magnus couldn’t resist rolling his eyes at the statement.

”Will you tell me where you plan on taking me now?”

”There is a lair right on the southern border of Idris that I have had to stay at in a handful of dire situations. Nobody knows the exact location and you will be no exception until I know I can trust you to not blow our cover.”

Not for the first time that night Alec felt absolutely insane as he took Magnus’ outstretched hand and followed him, silently cursing the stars.

*****

After well over an hour of walking through an entirely uninhabited area of Southern Idris in pitch black darkness, buildings started to become a recurrent sight again. They were very few and far between, especially in comparison to central Alicante, but the closer to the border they got the more the scenery began to resemble the likes of an actual city.

At some point in their journey, it had stopped raining, which was just about the only thing Alec could find joy in until he found himself standing in the entryway of an apartment in a seven-storey building.

”Make yourself at home,” Magnus told him as he disappeared into the room closest to the door, presumably to check that everything was in place from his last stay at the place.

The apartment was the furthest thing from a terrible place to live. It was one of the apartments in the seventh storey so the view behind the heavy, gray curtains just had to be beautiful. The decor of the place wasn’t an eyesore either, it was very minimal with barely any color, but Alec just couldn’t see anyone calling the place home. Nothing about it was warm or welcoming. It was like the space knew what it was being utilized for, that it was nothing more than a place to hide.

Moments later Magnus reappeared, heading straight into the kitchen and pulling out a loaf of bread from the cupboard.

”This is the only thing I know is currently still edible in here so this will have to do,” He said as he grabbed two plates and placed them on the table, beginning to butter the bread.

Alec crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his hip on the counter. ”Why are you so afraid of whoever it is that you work for?”

Magnus stilled, unconsciously tightening his hold on the butter knife in his hand. To say that the question caught him off guard would have been an understatement.

”Employers don't usually look kindly at unfinished tasks in my line of work.”

Alec shook his head as if he was trying to piece the puzzle together in his head with no success. ”You have no reason to care about what happens to me. You only took me with you because if you hadn’t, you would also have somehow suffered.”

When Magnus looked up, Alec was already looking at him with furrowed brows. ”So how? What are you running from exactly?”

”You have no reason to believe that I didn’t care about what would happen to you,” Magnus effortlessly deflected the question.

”Please,” Alec scoffed. ”My father is the president. It’s nearly impossible to get to him without endangering one’s reputation and freedom so the smart thing to do is to go after someone with a connection to him; the next best thing. Clearly, whoever you work for has a vendetta against him and by association, against me. That is why we’re in this situation.”

”You don’t know the half of it, nor are you ever going to,” Magnus snapped and slammed the knife down, the forceful contact denting the pristine marble countertop. ”I do not owe you an explanation.”

All he could think of was his father offhandedly mentioning assassin trainees getting kicked out of the institute, whether they had somewhere to go or not, if they failed to complete training by his standards. Most often they didn’t have anything or anyone to go back to since having nothing was the reason why they had ended up seeking refuge from under his father’s wing in the first place. If he had no problem doing that to strangers, Magnus wasn’t planning on finding out what would happen if the man found out his son had destroyed their chances at ruining the family that had ruined theirs. 

A heavy silence settled over them that neither of them wanted to break.

”You have to eat to stay alive, you know,” Magnus eventually spoke up, the words pushed through gritted teeth.

”I'd rather die than eat that,” Alec replied in clipped tones.

”Then don’t,” Magnus said, shrugging a shoulder nonchalantly. ”In fact, I’d rather you not. Then I can wholly take credit for your death and return back to Alicante without a care in the world.”

Alec stopped on his way to the bedroom, grinding his teeth together. As much as he didn’t want for Magnus to think that he couldn’t survive without him feeding him, he wanted for Magnus to get away even less and he would be able to do just that if Alec was out of the picture.

This in mind, he turned around and walked back over to Magnus, taking the plate out of his hand. ”There’s only one bed. I’m taking it.”

”I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

As he watched Alec’s back disappear into the bedroom, something suddenly tightened around his chest. Suddenly, words he had been biting back for years weighed on his tongue like lead, begging to be spat out. 

“You want to know why we're in this situation, why I was ordered to kill you?” Magnus blurted out the question almost in panic just as Alec was about to close the bedroom door.

Alec squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before turning around, nodding curtly. He was the one who had asked, who had wanted to know. He knew that political murders usually didn’t require a massive catalyst. One mistake and someone would go to great lengths to get your head on a platter. However, he had never heard anyone’s concrete reason for being willing to pay to get someone killed.

“Because my father finally decided he was tired of watching your father not suffer for being responsible for the death of my mother.”


End file.
